Final Nail in the Coffin

 Before heading for Florida on January 25th, my husband and I discussed that this would probably be our final winter trip to escape cold and snowy north Indiana. We are getting too old to handle the stresses and hassles of travel. Winter storm Landon put the final nail in the coffin so to speak. 

We were to fly home Thursday February 3rd, arriving in Fort Wayne around 1:30 p.m. On Wednesday we received an email from American Airlines telling us the Charlotte to Fort Wayne segment of our trip had been cancelled. They rebooked us on a flight from Daytona Beach to Chicago and then to Fort Wayne on Friday the 4th. The flight left around 6 p.m. from Daytona (almost 36 hours after our original scheduled flight), and it has been our experience that planes from O'Hare usually leave an hour late. We were scheduled to arrive in Fort Wayne at 10:44 p.m. After claiming our luggage, making the trek to long-term parking and clearing our car from the snow, then driving home it would be past midnight. My husband's sister's funeral was on Saturday February 5th. They cancelled our seats on the Feb. 3rd Daytona Beach to Charlotte flight. When I called to try to get those back, I was told I would be on hold about 3 hours so I chose the option of a callback.

Our original plan was to stay the night of the 3rd in Charlotte at my sister's house and then try to book a daytime flight to Fort Wayne on the 4th; but the only flight available according to the agent would also get us into Fort Wayne at 10:44 p.m. She suggested we wait two or three days to fly home. When I explained that we had a funeral to get to she sympathized but of course had no alternative.

So we went to Plan B and rented a car in Charlotte to drive home. This would usually be a 9-10 hour drive, but of course Landon had other ideas for us. We arrived in Charlotte in rain; I wasn't favorably impressed when instead of a jetway they rolled out a ramp to us and our carryon luggage which they put in the hold instead of letting us take on the plane sat out in the rain until we could deplane. We walked a long way to get our checked baggage and then probably twice as long to get to the car rental counter. When my husband started the car, the low-pressure tire symbol came on. Of course the rental company had no way to inflate the tires; they gave us a Kia Sportage instead. This turned out to be a blessing as the Kia was all-wheel drive.

We drove in rain most of the day. Near Mount Airy, North Carolina in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains we saw a fog alert sign lit up. Though visibility wasn't good, at least the fog did not sit on the road blocking out the lines, but it did slow us down. We had hoped to get to Gallipolis, Ohio to stay the night. We were close when we stopped at a motel just across the river from Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The locals at the front desk were not very encouraging about Friday's weather. Freezing rain/ice Thursday night followed by snow was predicted. 

Friday morning we debated about heading out. Around 9 a.m. we decided to give it a try. Our windshield wipers were encased in ice. My husband broke them free from the glass. Our route was U.S. Highway 35 going east to west across Ohio. We stopped in Chillicothe about 60 miles away after an hour and a half of traveling on sandy snow with really only one navigable lane of what should have been two lanes heading west. It snowed the entire time from the motel to Chillicothe. 

 When big rigs passed us on the left in the snow-filled lane we were sprayed with dirty film and discovered the windshield cleaning mechanism didn't work. We stopped at a Love's truck stop to buy an ice scraper/pick. They had none. We stopped further on at a gas station convenience store. No scraper though we used their washing fluid to clean the glass. My husband bought a Buckeye back scratcher and tried to find the cleaning orifices to unclog. No luck. 

At the next truck stop and much scraping away of ice with the flimsy plastic back scratcher from the wipers and the low gully where they rested against the glass (because this business too had no scraper), a try of the cleaning mechanism succeeded in flowing liquid. 

As we neared Dayton we actually saw sun and got on I-75. A cleared road at last. We stopped in Tipp City, Ohio for lunch.

 We were approaching Fort Wayne from a direction with which we were unfamiliar following Google map directions on the phone. It tried to take us on some small roads that were scary looking. We finally found Fort Wayne Airport in the south part of the city after negotiating the snow-filled streets of Decatur. 

It took quite an effort to find and identify our white car as it was totally covered with snow and the plows had buried our license plate. My husband transferred our luggage from the rental to our car and left to turn in the car. The whole time he was gone I had our defroster running full blast to loosen the frozen snow/ice on the windshield. We arrived home 5 p.m. Friday February 4th. 

I am trying to adjust to the idea of no future reprieves from northern Indiana winters; but if cruising seems safer we might still try for one more Caribbean cruise in the next few years. 

14 inches of snow had fallen in Winona Lake over two days.